Martin, Emmett

Duane's take

This one comes straight off the official marker, and I'll tell it to you true, just as it's recorded. Now, Cottle County has its share of hard stories. Wind-scoured land, big sky, winters that don't ask permission.

And this marker holds one of the hardest stories of all. Emmett Martin was the son of a trapper named J. A.

Martin. In 1898, Emmett was ten years old. His father worked a trapping camp ten miles south of the Shinnery settlement, and one day that year, young Emmett was sent back home to the settlement (just to stay overnight and return the next day with provisions for the camp).

A simple errand. An overnight stay. Back the next day.

He started back toward his father's camp. And somewhere on that ten-mile stretch, the sky changed. A blizzard came in.

Emmett lost his way. Night fell on that open country, cold and absolute, and Emmett Martin (ten years old, son of a trapper, carrying provisions back to his father) perished from the cold. They found his frozen body several days later.

Not in Cottle County. In King County. The blizzard had turned him around that badly.

There's nothing wry to say about that. Just a boy, a hard winter, and a father waiting at a camp ten miles south who never saw him come back. The Paducah Jaycees made sure that boy's name wasn't forgotten.

This marker stands for Emmett Martin. And now you know why.

What the marker says

Son of trapper, J. A. Martin. In 1898, at the age of ten, Emmett was sent to his home in Shinnery settlement to remain overnight and return the next day with provisions for his father's trapping camp, ten miles south. While returning to the camp, he was caught in a blizzard, losing his way. Night fell and he perished from the cold. His frozen body was found several days later in King County. Recorded, 1967 Incise on Base: Erected by Paducah Jaycees, 1967